The present invention is directed to a document management system. More particularly, the present invention is dire ted to a user interface which interacts with such a document management system, and portrays property value organizations as containment structures which allows the user to alter properties by direct manipulation of the containment structure.
The most common tool for organizing a document space relies on a hierarchical storage system. Documents are treated as files that exist in directories or folders, which are themselves contained in other directories, thereby creating a hierarchy that provides the structure for document space interactions. Each directory in a hierarchy of directories will commonly contain a number of individual files. Typically, files and directories are given alpha-numeric, mnemonic names in large storage volumes shared via a network. In such a network, individual users may be assigned specific directories.
In a traditional file system of this type, documents typically reside in one and only one directory. However, a user may wish to have the document belong to a variety of collections or folders according to a user""s organizational structure. For example, while the document may belong in a xe2x80x9cvery importantxe2x80x9d folder, the user may wish to also define the document as a group of xe2x80x9cproject Bxe2x80x9d documents.
Recently, systems have been developed where the user has provided access to properties which are selectively attached to a document by a user. The document with the attached properties may be stored at a location separate from the content of the document. The content of the document may be stored at a location outside of the document management system. Thereafter, a user is able to retrieve the document using at least one of the attached properties, such retrieving including obtaining the content of the document from wherever it resides.
One such system as summarized above, is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/143,551, Karin Petersen, et al., entitled property-based user level document management; and U.S. Pat. No. 09/144,032, Anthony G. LaMarca, et al. entitled, Clustering Related Files In A Document Management System, both assigned to the assignee of the present application and hereby incorporated by reference.
Another aspect of the newer data management systems described is that they can handle a wide variety of kinds of data as documents. Documents, in these systems can include not only familiar document types, including, but not limited to word processing files, presentations, and mail messages, but other types as well, including, but not limited to, contact information, and to-do items, and dynamic information, including, but not limited to, system status, portable device status, and user activity information.
Another aspect of the newer data management systems described, is that unlike in existing conventional hierarchical file systems, properties can be used to express multiple organizations. By separating the link between content and location, as possible with the cited document management system, a user is provided with greater flexibility in its storage management arrangements and document organization.
While this more recent development provides greater flexibility, users do not always need to work at a level of individual properties, but often would prefer to work at a level of meaningful organizations built out of those properties.
Thus, the present invention is directed to a user interface which allows flexibility of arrangements while also providing a meaningful organization of documents based on the existing properties.
In a document management system which employs properties to organized documents, a direct manipulation interface for visualizing document properties is provided. A repository configuration, which may be a single repository or multiple repositories, stores documents having attached properties. The content of the document possibly being stored at a location separate from the attached properties of the document. A first containment structure is configured to hold representations of the documents in the repository having a first property type. A second containment structure is configured to hold representations of documents in the repository having a second property type. A representation of a first document having the first property type is stored in the first containment structure. Further provided is a movement mechanism designed to move the representation of the first document, stored in the first containment structure to a location in the second containment structure. A property analyzer will sense operation of the movement mechanism and analyze properties attached to the first document when the representation of the first document is to be moved into the second containment structure. A property changer will alter at least one of the properties of the first document based on the information received from the property analyzer such that the document""s properties are consistent with the newly defined location.
With attention to another aspect of the present invention, inherent constraints exist within the document management system related to the movement of a document from a first location to a second location.